The Horror, The Horror

Here’s How American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy Said Goodbye to Jessica Lange

American Horror Story wrapped up its fourth season tonight with plenty of bloodshed, a little singing, and happy endings for everyone who deserved them. (And some for those who didn’t.) I’ll get into some of the specifics in a minute, but before I do, here was creator Ryan Murphy’s send-off to series star Jessica Lange.

Fans of the show know that Lange has been pretty firm that this will be her last season on American Horror Story. (Though she has somewhat softened her stance of late.) I don’t think we should take this tribute from Murphy as confirmation that Lange will absolutely be leaving the show, but rather confirmation that she might/probably will. And if this was, indeed, her swan song, she went out on a high note.

The first half of the episode was almost unendurably horrible to watch. Murphy and company put the horror in American Horror Story as Finn Wittrock’s Dandy Mott systematically murdered all but three of the freaks left in Jupiter, FL. We weren’t spared a single death. This wasn’t a splashy montage, this was slow, cruel, and stomach-churning.

The whole affair ended with Dandy getting what was coming to him at the hands (or, in one case, wooden stumps) of the three (four?) survivors: Jimmy, Desiree, Bette, and Dot. Dandy’s death was also very slow giving the show plenty of time to hammer home the season’s thesis. Dandy, the most conventionally beautiful character, was the biggest freak of them all. All that carnage was horrible, but at least somebody enjoyed it.

The back half of the episode was much more enjoyable, particularly for fans of Lange. We followed Elsa to the 1960s Hollywood where she achieved all her dreams and (as we knew she would) became a TV star. But life in the limelight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. After finding out the love of her life (Danny Huston’s Massimo) was dying, her husband (David Burtka!!!) was disappointing, and scandal was closing in, Elsa did the only thing she could do. She committed suicide by song.

Yeah, you heard me. Calling back to an earlier episode which set out the rules that you do not perform on Halloween, Elsa intentionally courted fate by rolling out one last Bowie classic. As Elsa talk-sang her way through “Heroes (We Could Be)”, the ghosts of Edward Mordrake (Wes Bentley) and good ol’ Twisty (John Carroll Lynch) showed up in green-misted style to put her out of her misery.

Once again, we don’t know for certain that this is Lange’s last ever episode of American Horror Story, but we can read a lot into the ending which had Elsa entering heaven a.k.a. a freak show populated by all her old, dead friends. A far cry from her character’s final fate in Season 3.

Elsa is, naturally, the star of the show in heaven and the curtain closes with her shining in the spotlight. The show brushed off any silly notion that Elsa, a selfish, duplicitous character, deserved much, much worse with the very meta line “stars don’t pay.” Lange has always been the star of this show. Even back in Season 1 when she ostensibly held a supporting role. Her mantle must be groaning under the weight of the awards she’s collected for American Horror Story. If this was, in fact, her final bow, we can’t say she hasn’t earned a break. All the same, I hope she returns.